"On Grandgirls and Laughter"

For those of you who have experienced depression, and I mean depression, you also know what I am saying when I express the pure, unadulterated joy of experiencing laughter.  It is a contrast and comparison thing.  The abysmal darkness, the hopelessness, the stifling  blanket of fog of the one stands starkly beside the life and light of the other.  If this is not in your experience, then you can only hear the words.  Laughter is one of the best gifts I was given when I came out the end of that very long, dark tunnel.

I love to laugh, and nothing or no one brings a belly laugh, a gut chuckle from me like my grandgirls.  I take that back.  When my son and son-in-law get together my jaws often hurt from laughing so hard.  But this is about my grandgirls.  I would like to say this is a unique, special characteristic of my grandchildren and mine alone, but I do think it can be said of most children.  

Two of the grandgirls were staying with me for the day.  As often happens, "I love my girls" came out of my mouth.  The little one, who never, ever lacks for words looked at me with an absolutely straight, expressionless face.  "Who wouldn't love us?" she asked. Laughter, instant and immediate.  And I still smile when I think about it.  Later on in the day, I was telling the girls about something that had taken place when my son, now 50, was a little guy.  This time it was the older one:  "Wow, I can't believe you can actually remember something that happened that long ago."  "Really?" I asked.  "Yeah, that is amazing." Once again, the laughter flowed from within me, and I smile when I remember.  

My life has been filled with laughter since I became a grandmother.  I remember when my now 15-year-old grandgirl was little, maybe 3 or 4.  She was concerned that I did not have a "boy" in my life.  I told her it needed to be the right one.  She didn't even take a breath or blink:  "The right one would be old, right, Nana?"  I still laugh when I think of that and that was a decade ago.

The sparkly grandgirl and the fearless one bring laughter to my soul even though they've moved away.  Talking with them on the phone always makes me laugh, and the infectious, contagious giggle of the older one still strikes a place deep within me.  I hope that never, ever changes in her.  The little one, although not so little, expressed her opinion that I need to write a Bible.  That made me laugh.  On the other hand, it gave me pause for thought too. 

It is said that laughter is the best medicine and kids keep you young.  Given that statement, I am in for a long, long stretch, as a healthy, wealthy woman, one of the wealthiest in the world.  

"A joyful heart is good medicine; but a crushed spirit dries up the bones."